1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments presented in this disclosure generally relate to beacons with customized payloads, and more specifically, to embedding the customized beacon into advertisements in order to trigger a predefined response in a user device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Infrared communication systems are known to provide accurate location information that a user device can use to activate user content (e.g., displaying a map, providing an audio or visual presentation specific to the location, and the like). To do so, an IR transmitter may transmit location data to the user device which, in turn, uses the location data to identify its current location. Based on identifying its location, the user device can provide location specific content to the user, thereby enhancing the user's experience.
One disadvantage of using infrared communication is that the user devices require special hardware that enable infrared communication. For example, if a theme park operator wants to use infrared communication to enhance a guest's experiences, the operator must provide the guest with a user device that is IR enabled. But purchasing, maintaining, and updating IR enabled devices is expensive. With the recent proliferation of handheld or portable computing devices such as smartphones and tablets which permit the user to load customized applications onto the devices, if the location information could instead be transmitted using a communication method supported by these common devices (which IR communication is typically not) then the operator no longer has to provide the guest with the user device. The location information can instead be transmitted using a communication method supported by the guest's personal device.